Future of Intelligence Convening
Future of Intelligence Convening
Thursday, October 22, 2026
San José State University, Student Union
As AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous, what do we mean by intelligence—and how is it being reshaped in contemporary life?
The Future of Intelligence Convening will bring leading thinkers and cross-disciplinary scholars to San José State University for a highly interactive, discussion-driven day. In addition to these discussions, the convening will include a public keynote address by distinguished scholar N. Katherine Hayles. The keynote is open to the entire SJSU campus community.
This gathering is the inaugural event in a new “Future of” series, designed to bring leading thinkers together for focused, forward-looking conversations about critical questions shaping our world.
About the Convening
The notion of intelligence has a long and colorful history and continues to generate significant scholarly and public interest. This workshop invites us to look ahead—to imagine the future of intelligence and to consider how its meanings, forms, and implications may evolve in the years to come. The convening will be organized around key framing questions and structured small-group dialogues, grounded in a brief set of pre-readings shared in advance.
Participants will explore questions including:
- What are the histories, current challenges, and tensions that will shape the future study of intelligence?
- What do we mean by the term intelligence in the current and historical context, and how is the concept of intelligence being shaped by the current social-cultural and political-economic contexts?
- How might emerging forms of intelligence—human and non-human—transform our understanding of cognition and consciousness?
- In what ways do artificial systems that mimic human behavior help or hinder this inquiry?
- Is intelligence inherently embodied, or can it meaningfully exist exclusively in non-human systems?
- What are the stakes of adopting broader or narrower definitions of intelligence in the future and marginalizing our histories of intelligence?
Managing the Public Interest in the Era of Rapid Technological Change: A Fireside
Chat
Sponsored by ai-et (Advanced Institute of Ethical Technology) @ SJSU
Time: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Register for the Fireside Chat
DESCRIPTION:
The rapid change in technological capacity is pushing the ability of humans to respond to these changes from a social, political, and policy perspective. The goal of this fireside chat is to engage experts in public-interest technologies to ask the question: How do we build an ethical technological world that accounts for the needs of humans and our broader environment?
James Regan
Chief Executive Officer of Clutch
James Regan is the Chief Executive Officer of Clutch, a social impact consultancy, where he leads Clutch’s innovation services across government, enterprise, and nonprofit sectors, including a recent partnership with Google Public Sector to advance responsible AI and digital transformation. Previously, James spent over a decade in California government, most recently serving as Deputy Secretary of Workforce Development for the State of California, appointed by Gavin Newsom to lead a variety of statewide initiatives to transform public services and support an AI-ready workforce.
Lili Gangas
Chief Technology Community Officer
Kapor Foundation
Lili Gangas is the Chief Technology Community Officer at the Kapor Foundation, a private foundation at the intersection of technology and racial justice, providing research and thought leadership, operating programs, supporting strategic partnerships and investments to increase diversity across the tech ecosystem--from K-12 education through entrepreneurship and venture capital - aiming to level the playing field in tech. Lili co-leads the Kapor Center’s Equitable Tech Policy Initiative with a focus on inclusive technology policy with special interests in closing digital divide, scaling new tech workforce models, advocating for responsible emerging technology such as AI as well as providing foundational support across civic engagement issues and tech enablement of civic organizations.
Public Keynote Address
N. Katherine Hayles
UCLA Distinguished Research Professor
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Literature, Duke University
Keynote Title: “Human and Nonhuman Cognition: A Functional Framework”
Abstract:
At present there are over 70 definitions of intelligence, with no consensus. This talk will therefore focus on cognition, defined as “a process of interpreting information in contexts that connect it with meaning.” By this definition, all biological organisms and some computational systems are cognitive, including bacteria, plants, and Large Language Models (LLMs). The five functions from which cognitive capabilities emerge in organisms are indicated by the acronym SIRAL: Sensing, Interpreting, Responding flexibly, and Learning. These criteria can also be used to determine if a biological adaptive system is cognitive. For computational systems, modifications are required to account for their modes of interacting with the world, designated as SILAR: Sensing, Interpreting, Learning, Anticipating and Responding. A functional framework will be explained that develops ways to connect cognition with awareness. A new concept of “inverse awareness” describes the ways in which LLMs create meaning and perform a human-derived form of awareness that does not exist in the biological realm.
Time: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Register for the Keynote Address
The entire SJSU campus community is invited to attend the keynote address.
N. Katherine Hayles is an internationally recognized scholar whose work has shaped contemporary conversations about cognition, media, technology and technogenesis. Dr. Hayles is the Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University. Her 11 print books include Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious (Univ. of Chicago Press 2017) and How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (Univ. of Chicago Press 2015), in addition to over 100 peer-reviewed articles. Her latest book is Bacteria to AI: Human Futures with our Nonhuman Symbionts.
Her books have won several prizes, and she has been recognized by many fellowships and awards, including two honorary degrees. These include the René Wellek Prize for How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics and the Suzanne Langer Award for Writing Machines. Her fellowships and honors include two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation residency at Bellagio and two University of California Presidential Research Fellowships. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Learn more about Professor Hayles on the UCLA Department of English website and at nkhayles.com.
Event Participation
9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.: Future of Intelligence Convening - This event is free and open only to pre-registered participants. A few spots are still available, so if you would like to participate, please sign up soon! Registration Deadline: September 30th. Convening Registration Link
11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Managing the Public Interest in the Era of Rapid Technological Change: A Fireside Chat - This event is free and open only to pre-registered participants. A few spots are still available, so if you would like to participate, please sign up soon! Fireside Chat Registration Link
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.: Closing Keynote - The keynote address is open to the SJSU campus community. Please sign up in advance: Closing Keynote Registration Link
Sponsorship and Planning
The Future of Intelligence Convening is sponsored by the Office of the Provost at San José State University.
Steering Committee
- Sandy Hirsh, Special Assistant to the Provost for AI Initiatives
- Yu Chen, Associate Professor, Information Systems and Technology
- Roberto González, Professor, Anthropology
- Vishnu Pendyala, Associate Professor, Applied Data Science
- Jon Rawski, Assistant Professor, Linguistics
- Janet Stemwedel, Professor and Chair, Philosophy
Questions
For more information, contact Sandy Hirsh at sandy.hirsh@sjsu.edu.
